After a barren summer for gamers – you can tell, they’re all looking rather more tanned than they do most years – it’s all guns blazing on the high street as publishers from across the gaming spectrum release the titles that they hope will not only shift significant units between now and Christmas, but quite possibly achieve the holy grail of a Game of the Year position at magazines and websites alike. We’ll be running a best of 2011 ourselves, in December, which YOU can influence (and please, do) – but before then, The Bumper Preview Special, of said stuff that developers are hoping you’ll cough up your hard-earned for…

THE BUMPER PREVIEW SPECIAL

In chronological order, the clusterf*ck of titles to come … and no, obviously this isn’t everything that’s coming the way of the consumer. But it’s a decent overview.

October 14

PES 2012
Platforms: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, iOS, Nintendo 3DS, PSP, Windows
In a line: The 11th edition of the Pro Evolution Soccer series aims to be a Fifa-beater, but still only has a partially licensed set of players.Watch a trailer

Forza Motorsport 4
Platform: Xbox 360
In a line: The best-looking racer on the 360 arrives two years after the third of the series, which shifted over four million copies – but on the downside, this new game features official content created in conjunction with Top Gear.Watch a trailer

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
In a line: A ‘reinterpretation’ of Capcom’s excellent (and brutally funny) zombies-and-stuff game of late 2010, Off the Record follows the events of the sequel from the perspective of Frank West, protagonist of the original Dead Rising.Watch a trailer

October 21

Batman: Arkham City (pictured above)
Platforms: Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U (eventually)
In a line: The sequel to the game of the year at 2009’s BAFTAs takes the open-world dynamics of its predecessor and relocates the Dark Knight in a sectioned-off area of Gotham – an area in which a familiar cast of villainous sorts are running amok.Watch a trailer

October 28

Battlefield 3
Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, iOS
In a line: The game that isn’t Modern Warfare 3 but plays in a very similar way, the amazing-looking Battlefield 3 is a first-person shooter that’ll keep online gamers happily killing complete strangers on the other side of the world ‘til 2012’s influx of triple-A-grade titles emerge.Watch a trailer

November 2

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (pictured, main)
Platform: PlayStation 3
In a line: The third instalment in the hugely popular PS3-excusive series of third-person adventure games, borrowing elements from the Indiana Jones movies and the Tomb Raider titles – expect big things after a raft of awards for the previous two entries.Watch a trailer

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Platforms: Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, DS
In a line: Episode three of the Modern Warfare series – first-person shooting refined to an art form – already has the online gaming community frothing at the chops; but don’t expect a particularly amazing plot for the solo campaign, as that’s really not the point here (the point being: things blow up, big time).Watch a trailer

November 11

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Platforms: Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
In a line: The RPG event of the year, Skyrim is the fifth installment in the multi-award-winning Elder Scrolls series, which started back in 1994, and continues the go-anywhere, do-anything (and never really ‘finish’ the damn thing) immersion of 2006’s epic Oblivion – voted the best game of all time by PC Gamer in 2007.Watch a trailer

November 18

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Platform: Wii
In a line: The prequel to the evergreen Ocarina of Time (which dates from 1998, released on the N64), action-RPG Skyward Sword makes use of the Wii controller for its frenetic swordfights – be sure to keep that strap around your wrist, or risk losing any priceless ornaments you might have at home.Watch a trailer

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita (launch title, due in December)
In a line: This update for the original MvsC3: Fate of Two Worlds (released back in February) has earned a standalone release, adding an additional 12 fighters – among them Resident Evil’s Jill Valentine, who was among the playable characters in 2000’s PS2/Dreamcast beauty of a battler, MvsC2: New Age of Heroes, and Devil May Cry baddie Vergil.Watch a trailer

November 18

Saints Row the Third
Platforms: Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
In a line: Sandbox gaming taken to new heights of ridiculousness, Saints Row the Third is gang warfare with a wicked smile, with voices provided by the likes of rapper 50 Cent, porn actress turned actress proper Sasha Grey and Hulk Hogan (yes, he plays a wrestler).Watch a trailer

November 25

Lord of the Rings: War in the North
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
In a line: RPG adventure set in Tolkien’s fantastical world, covering events occurring to the side of the stories’ main plot as war rages to the – yep, you guessed – north of Middle-earth.Watch a trailer

December 2

Mario Kart 7
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
In a line: See Super Mario 3D Land, just up there (only with added wheels).Watch a trailer

December 22

Star Wars: The Old Republic
Platform: Windows
In a line: The massively multi-player online role-player – or MMORPG – that a certain corner of the gaming world has been waiting three years for, The Old Republic pits the ages-old adversaries of good and evil against one another as a tenuous union between the Sith and the Republic is stretched to breaking point, in a story set over 3,500 years before the events of the Star Wars movies.Watch a trailer

REVIEWS

Gears of War 3

Platform: Xbox 360
Developer: Epic Games

The big Xbox 360 exclusive of the year lives up to its blockbuster billing in many respects, closing out (with minimal loose ends) a storyline that began with 2006’s original title via a series of third-person duck-and-cover skirmishes that combine to comprise a fairly engrossing yarn.

The story, for newcomers: you (mostly) play as Marcus Fenix, a soldier fighting for The Coalition of Organised Governments on a planet called Sera. The humans on Sera fought over an underground fuel source, called Imulsion – this was known as the Pendulum Wars, and lasted for 79 years. Still with me? Okay… The Pendulum Wars ended, with Sera bearing the scars, but worse was to come: from below the surface, a vaguely humanoid race of creatures known as the Locust (oh, how I wish the inspiration for that name came from the band) showed up on ‘E Day’ (‘E’ for emergence). Naturally, the two races didn’t get along. Very long story short: after the events of the two previous games, Gears 3 finds the Locust mutating because it turns out Imulsion isn’t the miracle fuel everyone thought it was (to say anything more would be a major spoiler), and Fenix – a lead protagonist who looks as if he’s been moulded from modelling clay and Lego bricks; a sort of steroid-riddled Morph in body armour – sets off with his Delta Squad buddies to, like, totally put an end to all this shit.

And he does so, albeit not without significant losses (again: spoilers!). The gameplay is unchanged from the previous installments in the series: for unclear reasons an area littered with scattered debris that’d double as decent cover is, inevitably, about to become overrun with bad-guy types bearing firearms; win the subsequent battle and the game rolls on to another plot development – or, just another firefight between broad-shouldered humans and ugly-mugged aliens (who are indigenous to the planet in question, but you get the point). It’s got a real Michael Bay feel to it, with action taking priority over any story nuances, the tale one told in the broadest brushstrokes. Yet, come its climax, the player might feel somewhat sorry for the ‘enemy’ of the series, whose only reason for entering into combat with the humans of Sera was to survive themselves, basically.

As the third game of three to follow the same storyline, Gears 3 isn’t going to win newcomers through its campaign. So it really steps up its game in a multiplayer capacity. There are the five-on-five battles of games one and two, with various modes including King of the Hill and Capture the Leader (fairly self-explanatory, no?). Horde is a cooperative experience too, where players face off against wave after wave of assailants, with each round featuring rather more dangerous nasties than the one before. (Survive beyond every tenth round, when some behemoth-proportioned ‘boss’ types enter the fray, and you’ve done well.) New to this title is Beast mode, where the Locust forces can be used – a neat addition given the great range of characters available. And with dedicated servers, Gears 3 players shouldn’t experience the slow-down that sometimes blighted Gears 2’s online appeal.

As someone who enjoyed the past two Gears games, finishing the campaign was more important than indulging in the other game options. But it’s in the campaign that the flaws emerge. Firstly, it’s too easy – anyone playing at a level lower than hardcore, with previous experience, should breeze through the solo mode with minimal fuss (especially since the AI of Fenix’s squad has been improved, meaning certain areas can be cleared by them without you needing to let loose a single round). Of course, this can be corrected by increasing the difficulty level. What can’t be changed are low points of the campaign – the character Griffin, voiced with cringe-inducing awfulness by Ice-T, brings nothing to the party whatsoever (when he swears to get revenge after the Locust take out his crew, quite why Marcus et al don’t pump him full of bullets for being such a douchebag earlier in the game is beyond me). And the on-rails parts – on the back of a truck, sliding down a zip-line, riding a submarine – are impressive-looking but poorly managed, the intensity of Gears 3’s general play lost as the machine seems to take over (especially during the overlong underwater section).

But nothing can quite take the shine off a game that does, generally, live up to its billing as the event title of the year for Xbox gamers. The campaign isn’t as long as it might be, and the climax, given everything that’s gone before it, feels a little lacklustre. But when there’s lead flying at the player from all sides, a team-mate is down and dying and you need to reach them before they peg it, and there’s a hulking great Imulsion-spewing thing between you and progression, well… The heart skips a dozen beats at a time, and the whole thing can leave you rather breathless.

F1 2011

The official game of the current Formula One season, F1 2011 refines its predecessor’s mechanics to deliver what is probably the finest racing title of its kind, of all time. But if you already own F1 2010, is it worth the (re)investment?

Tentatively, yes. The addition of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) and DRS (Drag Reduction System) into F1 this season is mirrored by this game, which means faster qualifying times and a fairly different experience when it comes to overtaking rivals. In some respects it makes things easier – tuck into the slipstream, activate the DRS, and breeze on by… and straight into the gravel, as all of your downforce has been lost, making steering at 180 miles per hour something of a problem.

It’s probably telling (i.e., that I’m useless at racing games) that the first achievement I ‘won’ playing this on the 360 was one suggesting that maybe I try a rallying game, so much was I sliding from one side of the track to the other, spending very little time on the racing line in the process. But stick with F1 2011 and its very particular ways become close to second nature. It also helps if you start on the easier difficulty settings – down there you might take a Lotus to pole position, which is good for a laugh if hardly representative of reality.

The career mode is a lot of fun, allowing you to develop a driver over five seasons, and earn promotion to the better teams should you do well for the lower-ranking ones. The Grand Prix mode allows you to play as the drivers proper, so you can take Sebastian Vettel down a peg or two by bringing him in tenth. There are time trial and time attack modes, too, to keep you busy when not participating in races. Two players can compete against each other split-screen, and online multiplayer supports up to 16 players per race. It’s not the prettiest racer to look at – the pit lanes are positively 16-bit – but everything moves at a cracking rate with no noticeable slow-down.

Having never driven an F1 car, I can’t be certain that this is as close as a game has come to simulating what it’s like to be sat snugly inside one of those tiny cockpits. But I do know, as the wall at Monaco gets closer pretty damn quickly with the controller in my hands doing nothing to prevent inevitable impact, that I should never be let loose with one.

BEST. GAME. EVER.

What with Skyrim out in a month (and sure to be taking over waking hours for some time afterwards), I thought it’d be good to start this new feature with a look at what I think is perhaps the greatest RPG of all time…

Final Fantasy VII

Released: January 1997
Platforms: PlayStation, Windows
Developer: Square
Sales: 330,000 copies sold in its first weekend in the US; 2.3 million copies sold in Japan in its first week; over 10 million copies sold worldwide to date

Earning itself perfect or near-perfect marks from the critical ranks – 9.5/10 at IGN, five stars at Official PlayStation Magazine, an average of 92/100 at Metacritic – Final Fantasy VII represents the moment when the Japanese series went global like never before. Initially developed with an eye on the Super Nintendo, and later the N64, its massive size made it necessary to switch from cartridge to disc to deliver Square’s incredible end product.

The tale is classic Japanese RPG fare – a tradition that’s rarely changed in the series’ subsequent titles. The player is Cloud, whose adventures take him across the three continents of Gaia, a world where industrial-era technology butts up against the natural world with predictably painful results. Characters come into the story, out of the story, back into it, and die. There are lies and deceit – nothing is quite what it seems from the word go. The game’s antagonist, Sephiroth, is a good guy turned very bad indeed, whose plans don’t simply extend to world domination – he means to destroy it, basically. Everything gets very complicated, very quickly. Told you: classic Japanese RPG fare.

But why the breakthrough at entry number seven? The Final Fantasy series had long been admired, but had rarely made commercial headway outside of Japan since the first title emerged in 1987 on the Nintendo Entertainment System. But VII looked remarkable, the action moving from a 2D realm to 3D polygons, and it sounded remarkable too – the game’s soundtrack, by long-term Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, was released as a four-CD set, and remains a favourite score amongst FF fans to this day. Rather than allow the gamer to explore an open world, FFVII kept things fairly linear – which was great for newcomers, as the game offered to hold their hand for the first few hours. The combat system was hardly altered from the turn-based system used on previous FF titles, but by introducing strategy where other RPGs relied on hack-and-slash button-bashing, FFVII again earned itself several brownie points for doing something no other title on the PlayStation was. In one respect FFVII made a massive contribution to the PlayStation’s success, as hardcore RPG fans flocked to the machine in order to play this revolutionary game.

That demand for a remake of FFVII remains extremely high tells you much about the success of later FF games. The latest, FFXIII, was something of a chore to get through (it looked fantastic, but it played like a lame dog chasing after a rocket-propelled hare: slowly, with what could have been always just out of sight), with only X and XII, both for the PlayStation 2, really adding anything to the series’ legacy (the former is soon to receive the improved PS3 treatment). Without playing it, it’s hard to really get a handle on the genius of FFVII – but give it a couple of hours and it’ll suck you in for the long haul, even so long after its original release. Its graphics may have aged, and the lack of voice acting might seem positively archaic – but a great game will always be a great game if the core mechanics are the focus over any aesthetic frills, and it’s on this level, as well as via its compelling plot, that FFVII delivers like no other.

SAVAGE PIXELS’ BEST GAMES OF 2011

In December, this column will be given over to the year’s finest releases – which is where you come in. Comment below, or email miltonsavagegames@gmail.com, with your favourite game of the year and why it rules quite as much as it does (in, say, a paragraph – keep it snappy). In December, a selection of these user reviews will be published, and one might even be selected at random to win a prize. If these pockets go deep enough. So yeah: what’s been your favourite game of the year? Closing date for all suggestions/entries is November 30, so there’s time to take in some of the previewed biggies yet to be released.

AWESOME GAME ENDING OF THE MONTH

Which is one way of saying: “Hey, loser, this is what you never got to see because you’re pants at this gaming lark.” This month, with Rockstar (LA Noire, GTA, Red Dead Redemption) currently working on the third game in the series, due in March, it’s the awesome third-person shooter Max Payne 2 from 2003, “a film noir love story” as the artwork claimed. Checkout the MP3 trailer here, and the ending to the second game below.